"We have to provisionally implement the whole treaty."

Ambassador Lynn M. Hansen,
U.S. CFE Treaty Negotiator

THE LAST CRISIS: FINAL RATIFICATION

Following the Oslo conference, attention turned to completing ratification and exchanging final treaty documents at the CSCE summit in Helsinki on July 9-10, 1992. Of the 29 states that were party to the treaty, 11 had not ratified and deposited their instruments of ratification at The Hague as of mid-June. As stipulated by the treaty, entry into force would occur 10 days after all the states had deposited their ratification articles. Turkey ratified on June 18, Moldova on July 1, and Russia on July 8. Five other nations deposited their ratification articles on July 6, 8, and 9. That left three nations--Armenia, Belarus, and Kazakstan--that would not, or could not, act in time for the CSCE summit in Helsinki, slated for July 9-10. Treaty diplomats in Vienna viewed this inaction as disastrous; the 26 states that had completed ratification held more than 90 percent of the treaty's TLE, units, territory, and zones. Further delay might dissipate the momentum created in the past seven months.

When Ambassador Hansen returned to Vienna from Osloin mid-June, he realized that the Helsinki summit might be held without a ratified CFE Treaty and no entry into force. "Near panic struck," he recalled. "One night, in the middle of the night, I concluded what we had to do. I said: `We have to provisionally implement the whole treaty.'"⁴⁷ For a multinational, 29-nation treaty, this was a radical idea. The next day when Hansen called Washington and discussed the idea with U.S. international treaty lawyers, "They rejected it totally." Then, he recalled, "We had a bit of a screaming match."⁴⁸ Hansen won; but the president and key U.S. senators had to approve the concept before U.S. officials could discuss it with the NATO allies and the other signatory nations. When the secretary of state, the president, and the senators approved, events moved swiftly.

These actions set the clock running on entry into force, but they did not complete the formal ratification process. Armenia deposited its ratified CFE Treaty instruments at The Hague on October 12, 1992. Belarus and Kazakstan completed the group of original states by depositing their instruments of ratification on October 30. Ten days later, on November 9, the CFE Treaty and the CFE 1A Concluding Act officially entered into force.⁵⁰

SUMMING UP

It had taken 24 months--November 1990 to November 1992--to move from treaty signature through the national ratifications to official entry into force. Along the way a series of treaty-related crises had been resolved: TLE relocations, resubordinations, reclassifications, new state parties, redistribution of the former USSR's entitlements and obligations, and new national manpower ceilings. But the larger, more serious crisis of the Soviet Union's collapse struck at the existence of the CFE Treaty. In the face of turmoil and revolution, German, French, American, Russian, British, and Central European leaders and diplomats had fought hard to retain the treaty. Throughout these difficulties, the CFE Treaty retained its importance for the future of Europe. With treaty operations about to start, attention turned to the national inspection agencies and their inspectors who would monitor the treaty, and the military services that would reduce and account for thousands of items of treaty-limited equipment.

For the United States, the On-Site Inspection Agency had the mission of conducting the CFE Treaty inspections and escorts. During the long and arduous two-year ratification process, OSIA's European Operations Command underwent what Colonel Lawrence Kelley, Chief of Operations, called "Standing Up the Unit."